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Greenwich Council wastes £200,000 following poor planning for places

Posted on 30 April 2015

Greenwich Council’s failure to plan enough school places for this September means that the new school buildings at Thomas Tallis will soon be joined by temporary portacabins, which will cost £200,000 more than necessary because of the dreadful deal signed with the developers.

The new Thomas Tallis building was opened in November 2011, but now Greenwich Council has decided that an extra form of entry (30 students) is required on site but the existing buildings cannot hold them. As a result, the Council is building 4 new classrooms, and changing rooms however the deal they signed with the developer means that there are additional costs of £211,463 which cover the company’s legal, technical due diligence and insurance costs. These costs would not be payable if the Council had not signed a poor deal with the company running Thomas Tallis.

Leader of the Opposition and Conservative Councillor Spencer Drury said “Parents have a right to expect that their children will go to a local school, however, this year Greenwich Council’s poor planning for a completely predictable number of students has meant that there will be overcrowding in schools like Tallis and many students are being required to make substantial journeys to places like Prendergast Ladywell Fields. This simply isn’t good enough and reflects very poorly on the Labour Council.”

“However, what adds insult to injury here is that the building will cost £200,000 extra as the Council built a new school which cannot hold the numbers required. As with the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, the poor privatisation deal at Thomas Tallis once again reflects the fact Labour is not competent to handle public money at any level.”